1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an imaging system mounted on a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been conventionally known a system in which a camera is mounted within a vehicle cabin to capture an image of the outside of the vehicle through a glass. A driving support system mounted on a vehicle detects a pedestrian or another vehicle around the vehicle from an image captured by a vehicle-mounted camera through a glass, so as to perform driving support processing, such as outputting a warning to the driver. If a glass region included in the imaging range of the vehicle-mounted camera fogs up, however, the vehicle-mounted camera may not favorably capture an image of the outside of the vehicle, so that the driving support system is unable to perform the driving support processing based on a captured image. Accordingly, it would be suitable to prevent the glass fogging or defog the glass so that the vehicle-mounted camera can favorably capture an image of the outside of the vehicle.
JP-A-2014-101004 discloses an imaging system for capturing an image of the outside of a vehicle through a glass of the vehicle. The imaging system disclosed in JP-A-2014-101004 activates, upon detection of an outside air temperature lower than a predetermined temperature when the engine is started, a hot-wire heater embedded in the windshield to heat a glass region corresponding to the imaging range of an image sensor until a predetermined time elapses, and repetitively performs the heating process using the hot-wire heater with a predetermined period.
JP-A-2014-101004 also discloses a glass fogging prevention system for preventing glass fogging or defogging a glass by activating a dehumidification function of an air conditioner when it is found that glass fogging has occurred or may occur based on outputs from a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor. The housing for housing the temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and image sensor is attached to a glass.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-101004
With the technique disclosed in JP-A-2014-101004, however, the heating process using the hot-wire heater is repetitively performed with a predetermined period, so that the glass may be unnecessarily heated.